Sometimes
by Lil Dorito
Summary: Roxas is in hospital with Alzheimer's and has a special visitor in his last day to share happier times.


The machines in the white room beeped slowly, making the only sounds the clock, the machines, and stop-start breathing coming from the bed. The doctor walked in and sat by the bed, a clipboard in his hand.  
"So, how you today Mr Hart?" No answer.  
"Erm... lunchtime soon, would you like anything in particular?" No answer.  
"I heard your husband's coming to see you; that'll be fun, right?" A small twitch, but no sound. The doctor sighed, stood up and on leaving the room, bumped into the aforementioned husband. "Ah, Mr Hart - if I were you, I'd consider getting some life insurance." With that, he left the room. The visitor pulled up a chair and sighed, holding his beloved's hand and giving it a squeeze.  
"Oh Rox...I'm sorry you ended up like this... Are you there today?" He looked closely at the blonde's face as the eyes flickered open and looked at him, a tiny hint of recognition in them. "Hey beautiful. Can you remember me this time?" The blonde smiled, but nothing else. The redhead was urged on and pulled a photo album out of his bag and rested it on the bed so that his dearest could see. "I found this when I was cleaning our home yesterday, thought you might like to see..." He opened it onto the first page, where two young men, one blonde and one redheaded, and a group of others were smiling at the camera and pulling faces with peace signs. "That was the day we met..."

-"Come _on _Roxas; I promised Dem I'd introduce you."  
"But Zexion, I don't _want_ to meet another one of Dem's mad friends." The blonde and the blunette are walking down the street, the blonde trudging behind slightly, until they arrived at the café where they were to meet Dem and his new friend. They walk in and go over, sitting with the two. As soon as Roxas sits down, he can't stop staring at the redhead opposite; his eyes are like two green emeralds and his features are perfect in every detail. The most interesting feature being the two tattoos under his eyes.  
"Roxas, this is Axel. Axel, this is Roxas." The redhead smiles and gives a mini-salute while the blonde just gives a nervous grin.  
"Thank you Dem."-

Axel turned the page in the album and looked at a picture of Axel holding an ice cream cone while Roxas was licking some off his nose. The redhead smiled warmly and looked over at the blonde. "That was our sixth date, do you remember Rox? Please tell me you do..." Nothing registered in the smaller man's eyes, but he tilted his head slightly, looking at the picture carefully. "That was the day before the accident." Axel continued. "I was so scared that I'd lost you that day..."

-"Hey Ax, look I'm really sorry but I woke up late. I'll be there soon okay?"  
"_Hurry up Blondie; we've only got 15mins before the film starts._"  
"I know Ax, I'll be there soon." Thank God his apartment is only around the corner. Roxas changes into some clothes with super speed and runs out the apartment, grabbing his keys as he closes the door and races downstairs. Once outside, he looks both ways and speeds across the road, just about to make it when a drunk driver comes round the corner. Tyres screech and his vision blurs.  
Axel gets bored quickly, then hears the screeching tyres and runs around the corner with everyone else, only to keep running and kneels on the road when he sees who's there. "ROXAS! Roxas, speak to me...can you hear me? Roxas?!"-

Axel shuddered at the memory, and turned the page again. He grinned at the picture with the added caption; Roxas and Axel in tuxedos, standing at the altar with the biggest smiles possible and _'You are MINE, got it memorised?'_ written at the bottom. Axel smiled and looked over at his love's hand with the small silver band on his finger. He looked at his own silver band and slid it off and read the small inscription on the inside.  
'_I love you Axel, forever and always'_  
"That was the best day of our lives, right Rox?" Only a small smile appeared this time, but that was good enough.

-"And do you Axel Hart, take Roxas Houghton as your civil partner for now and forever, 'til death do you part?"  
"I do." Roxas squeezed Axel's hand, smiling up at him.  
"And do you Roxas Houghton, take Axel Hart as your civil partner for now and forever, 'til death do you part?"  
"I do." Axel squeezed his hand back, smiling back down at him.  
"You may kiss the-" Before the minister had time to finish, Axel put one hand on Roxas' back, the other on his hip, and kissed him deeply. After the initial shock, Roxas smiled and kissed back, earning cheers from the crowd and a knowing smile between the best men, Demyx and Zexion.-

Axel put his ring back on and squeezed Roxas' hand tightly and kissed his forehead. "That's still true: I love you Rox, forever and always..." He looked back at the book and sighed at the next picture. A simple one, presumably taken by Demyx seeing as Zexion was in the background, of Roxas and Axel hugging, the redhead with tears in his eyes and Roxas looking on the verge of them himself. "Taken just after we made up." He looked back at his husband. "I can't believe I almost let you go Rox...that was the dumbest thing I've ever done."

-Roxas walks into the house and calls out "Axel! I'm home early; Tony said he'd cover my shift for the night!" He looks around but everything's quiet. "...Axel?" He makes his way up the stairs slowly and walks to their bedroom door, hearing muffled noises inside. "Axel...?" He opens the door and stands there, frozen. Axel is in bed. With Demyx. Said redhead freezes and looks over and his husband's face.  
"Oh Rox...I...wasn't expecting you home so soon..."  
"T-Tony covered my shift for the night... Axel, how could you?" His voice is so full of hurt as a single tear slides down his cheek. He backs away and hits the wall behind him, then turns and runs downstairs, slamming the back door as he runs down to the secluded part of the garden that only he (well, he _thinks_ only he) knows about.  
Axel pushes Demyx off him when he sees Roxas back away and tries to get out of the bed in time. "Roxas, wait!" But it's too late. He sits on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands and sighs. Demyx slowly crawls over and sits next to him, then rests an arm around his shoulders but very quickly puts it down when Axel flinches. "I've lost him Dem. He'll never come back to me after this..."-

Roxas frowned slightly at the next photo, not remembering it whatsoever. Admittedly, the Alzheimer's didn't help but still. It was a picture of a chocolate cake with _'Get Well Soon'_ written on it in light brown icing. Axel very slowly moved onto the bed, very conscious of the fact Roxas could forget him at any moment and panic, and squeezed the blonde's hand again. "I didn't think you'd remember that. I did it as a joke; at the time, you thought it was hilarious. That was the day you were diagnosed."

-The two of them are sitting in the doctor's room, waiting for him to come in and give them the results. Roxas is pale and just staring at the floor. "Hey" He looks up to see Axel smiling at him. "It'll be okay Rox. I'm sure it's nothing." The blonde nods, but still looks worried, so Axel wraps an arm around him and holds him close. "And no matter what, I'll be here to go through it with you." The doctor walks in at that point and sits opposite them.  
"Well Roxas, we have your test results back and to tell you the truth, it isn't great." Roxas stares at the floor again, releasing a shuddering breath. Axel still has his arm wrapped around his husband and rubs his arm in comfort. "There's no easy way of putting this. Roxas, I'm afraid you have Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, we've caught it too late to stop it completely, but we can help slow it down a bit if you want to take that option..." The blonde doesn't register the rest. He has Alzheimer's, he will eventually get Dementia too and then he'd forget everything. A small tear slowly falls down his face and he rubs his ring, remembering the inscription at least.  
_'I love you Roxas, forever and always'_ -

Axel didn't bother with the other photos, he'd shown Roxas the most important ones and that was enough for now. He sighed and looked at Roxas again, who was tracing the album with two fingers. He kissed his forehead and smiled. It had been years, but for one last time, Roxas looked like the little 15yr old blonde he met all that time ago in that little urban café. He slid off the bed and knelt by him, so he was just bellow Roxas' eye level. "Roxas, look at me." The blonde took a while, but eventually looked over. "Roxas, I love you so much. If there's one thing you remember, let it be that." Axel leant forwards and brushed the hair out of his love's eyes and tucked it behind his ear. Roxas just shook his head and held Axel's hand in place, pointed at the ring on the redhead's finger, then held out his hand. Axel looked at him, confused, but took off his ring and handed it over. Roxas looked at it carefully and smiled at Axel, handing it back. "I love you too, forever and always." Axel smiled, tears in his eyes and sniffed.  
That night, Roxas' mind forgot completely and he passed away in his sleep. Well, everything except this.

There was one person he loved, and who loved him. Even if he couldn't quite remember his name...

**Written a long time ago (3 years to be precise) and originally for Akuroku Day, but I haven't posted anything here yet, so I thought it was about time I did. I plan on posting my other oneshots too, ****_then_**** the chapter'd stories after that (if you follow me on deviantART, you'll know there's quite a few!)**

**So yeah... This was based off a piece we had to do in Drama back in Yr10 - we were given a poem called ****_Sometimes_**** and could use a line, a stanza, or the whole thing to base our piece off. Our group came up with this (the only difference being it was a hetero couple so there were some slight changes like names and the fact originally there was a scene before the wedding and them at the doctor's because the wife couldn't have kids). **

**Hope you liked it!**


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